A Different Side To The Story
by TheFabDonna
Summary: Emma tells her daughter a different story than the one she has heard before, one in which villains and heroes aren't necessarily two different things.


Looking back now, Emma wondered how she ever functioned without them in her life. But then again, if she was honest with herself she was only floating, looking for something. Looking for them.

"Mom, tell me a story." The little girl in front of her asked, "Please?"

"You are supposed to be going to sleep, Jessie." Emma said, and kissed the girls forehead.

"Pleease?"

Emma knew she couldn't say no to those eyes, so she sat down next to the bed and began.

Once upon a time in a land far far away from here, in land that had once been cursed by a evil queen…

"MOM! I have heard this one before!" Jessie said, "I WANT A NEW ONE."

"I promise, little girl, you have never heard this one."

"Okaay."

People in this land didn't know anything was wrong, except a few who knew the truth, and among them was a little boy who changed more than he even knew himself. As he brought the young princess into the land, he thought she would be the one to save them.

But the young princess didn't want to be a savior, she didn't believe in evil curses or evil queens. She didn't believe in the black and white of fairytales at all, so when she suddenly remembered a life she had long forgotten she had no choice but to embrace her role. But she didn't. She saved the little boy, and lifted the curse, but in the end she wasn't the one who saved them.

"SHE WASN'T?" Jessie asked; eyes wide open.

"No, she wasn't. Now let me tell the story."

When the curse lifted and the people of the land regained their memories they all wanted revenge towards the Evil Queen, but before they could put their plans into motion a new disaster hit the land, and suddenly the tables had turned.

As a purple smoke emerged them, and magic returned to land, rules changed, and people were scared, not only of the Evil Queen but of the Dark One who suddenly seemed more dangerous than ever before.

The little boy and the savior went to see the Evil Queen, and were met with a sight that in many ways scared them more than the legends of the woman herself. Magic was back, but the Evil Queen wasn't. As the boy entered the castle of the Evil Queen he realized something he too had long forgotten, that the women in front of him was not the Evil Queen at all, but his mother.

Their reunion was however short lived, as those happy moments in fairytales always are, as the Dark One entered the Castle snickering and evil as he always was. Looking as the true villain the Queen had always known he was, but the rest of the land has forgotten until it was already too late.

He banned the boy and the savior away from the Castle, and trapped the Queen instead so that she would forever be separated from the rest of them, for whole the Evil One would never admit it, he feared the Queen for her growth during what has been referred to as the "misted times".

As the boy looked to the Savior for her to make it alright again, for her to take the sword that once belong to her father and slay the Evil One, the Savior knew she couldn't. The Savior believed the battle was lost, because in the end the Savior knew that without the Queen she wouldn't have saved anyone at all.

The Savior had, just as the boy realized that the Queen wasn't the Evil Queen of the stories, that the Queen was the driving force inside herself. That while everything she had done since she came to the land, she had done for the boy, she now realized that none of it would have been possible if the Queen hadn't helped.

As the Savior looked to the Castle where the Queen now was trapped, she looked at the boy and told him it was over. That this fairytale won't have a happy ending.

"Mom! I don't like this story!" Jessie interrupted Emma again, "The Evil One is cruel, and the Savior is weak."

"Yes, Jessie, but fairytales aren't all black and white, but the story isn't done. Trust me."

As it seemed like all hope was lost as the Savior and the Boy was reunited with the King and the White Queen and the Darkness ones again fell under Darkness under the Evil One, something unexpected happened.

"Rumpelstilskin!" The name was heard all over the land as if it was enhanced by a thousand, as the Queen stepped into the square. The crowd mumbled in surprised, no one thought the Queen was even alive, or if she was she would never get out of her prison.

"This is MY world." The Queen said, as she took in the Evil One, not an ounce of fear was possible to hear in her voice, "These are my people." She walked close up to him, "These are the people I love, and you have no rights to them."

"You love? You are incapable of such emotion, dearie." The Evil One laughed, "And this world? It was never yours; it was mine from the beginning. It was mine long before you were born."

"The rules are different here, Rumpel, or haven't you noticed it that yet?" She laughed in his face, and the crowd again looked upon her in a way they never had before. The fear that once was in the eyes of the people in the land was no traded away for awe and hope.

"Whatever great master plan you think you have, you don't have what matters the most." She looked over the crowd, "There is someone missing here isn't it? She couldn't take it, could she? The Dark One's true nature?"

It was clear to the people of the land that The Queen they had once feared and that had ruled their land with an iron fist, was still very much present in this new Queen. But for some reason it didn't seem as scary as it has before the Dark Curse had been cast.

"She.." the words escaped him. "You really thought she would stay? That true love's kiss would save you both? You fool. You might have brought magic to this land, but that doesn't change the rules of the curse."

The crowd was getting restless, all this talk and no one seemed to do anything. They were scared for the first move but also desperately wanting it to happen. They knew this was it, the moment. The moment were villains could become heroes and the curse would be broken, once and for all.

"You see, this land. My land. Taught me lessons and brought me what I always wanted. And that gave me powers to see what you seem to have forgotten."

The Queen looked into the eyes of the Evil One, "You may have brought magic to this place, but this place? Its not your world. Its mine, and my rules still apply, which means, you can be killed."

As the Queen raised the sword no one had seen she had, a gift once given to the Savior by the Evil One himself, a fine irony if one had ever been seen, she slashed the throat of the evil one, and he fell dead as the mortal man he had long forgotten that he was.

As the Queen defeated the Evil One, her eyes searched the crowds looking for one special person and as she laid her eyes on her White Knight, the woman formally known as the Savior, she ran over and gave her True Love's Kiss and the curse was lifted from the land once and for all.

"I still say I couldn't have done it without you.."

Emma turned around to see her wife in the doorway.

"Ma?" Jessie asked carefully, "Yes, sweetheart."

"Why didn't you tell me you were the hero?"

"Because I never was." Regina said to her little girl, "Your mom and your brother and your grandparents are the heroes, they kept alive and they forgave me. All I did was believe in what I had known all along."

"Love is the most powerful magic of all." Jessie said, and smiled at her parents.

"Yes, it is." Regina said and leaned her head towards Emma, "Goodnight baby girl." They said in unison as they walked out of the room and back into their own fairytale.


End file.
